A few years ago, Budweiser ran a Super Bowl ad (the best one this decade, in my opinion) called Typical American. The phrase starts as an insult — we strip in public, we show up uninvited — but then it flips. A subway rider gives a homeless man the shirt off his back. A soldier surprises his father, who thinks he is still deployed. The point is that “typical” people are often doing remarkable things in ordinary life every day. 

“Typical” isn’t always a compliment. But when Navy veteran Mike Delaney describes his invitation to throw out the ceremonial first pitch at Desert Sunrise High School’s second ever varsity baseball opener as “typical Maricopa,” he sure as shootin’ means it as one. (Head to page 24 for the full quote.) 

In fact, these pages are full of typical Maricopans.

Not celebrities. Just people doing meaningful, interesting, generous or impressive things in the course of normal life here. 

At Central Arizona College, a student revives a midterm study night because others might need it. Another helps turn an ordinary classroom into a gaming hangout that keeps students lingering long after class. 

On a Saturday night, the community comes together to raise tens of thousands of dollars so more locals can attend that very college; meanwhile, others welcome a new park, amphitheater and concert series all at once. It’s just another typical Maricopa evening. 

In Alterra, one resident picks up her husband’s camera and starts capturing the wildlife most of us pass by every day, finding something new in it nearly a decade after moving here. Another warns that the city’s wildlife, while beautiful, can also present perils. 

And in Homestead, concerns that kids don’t have enough outlets to play spill over into an all-out, glow-in-the-dark gel blaster war, where kids do something seen less in Maricopa than in the South or Midwest. (Those of us from back East know what I mean.) They pour into the street for fear of missing out on the neighborhood fun, making friends outside school and building community in these identical neighborhoods full of strangers. 

We Maricopans don’t mean to be unfriendly. The truth is, we all come from different places, many of us arriving quite recently. And we’re all busy with our typical Maricopa lives. 

So, enjoy reading a few of these stories. And hey, get to know your neighbors. That’s where the best stories are still hiding.